After 24 years of controversy, a vital deadline is looming for Glacier Resorts Ltd., which by next month has to prove to B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office that significant progress has been made on the billion-dollar plan to build a 6,300-bed resort on Crown land in the glacial wilderness, 55 kilometres west of Invermere.

"One of the mysteries is why he has got his nose in it at all," said B.C. MLA Norm Macdonald, adding that people worry about publicly criticizing powerful minister Bill Bennett. "This is complete insider stuff. It's a remote corner of the province and they're getting away with stuff no one would get away with anywhere else... Everything about it feels like cronyism at its worst."